Hasta La Gadget!

Looks like Japan’s not the only one that’ll have Froyo on a five-inch tabletphone this year — Dell’s official Facebook account confirms that Android 2.2 will be rolling out to the Dell Streak starting this very month. That date’s just for the UK, mind you, as Dell plans to stagger the release from country to country for that winsome Stage UI. That said, if you’re a particularly astute diner you may be able to get your sweet spoonful sooner than some, as just last evening Dell directed a number of Streak owners to the website pictured above. While that “Continue with Update” button reportedly didn’t work and the website has since been pulled, it seems that Dell’s considering the idea of letting users directly download Android 2.2 themselves. See what that update might include (spoiler: mobile hotspot!) over at StreakSmart.

[Thanks, Naz]

Dell Streak Android 2.2 update imminent in UK, other territories on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who’d have thought that a little thing like the inclusion of USB Host capabilities could open the door to such wonders as an SNES controller dock? That’s exactly what we have here. The Dell Streak‘s ability to work with standard USB keyboards has enabled it to also work with a suitably modified SNES controller, having had a cablectomy and the addition of a PDMI connector on top. That, with the addition of a USB board, turns the controller into a keyboard and, hey presto, it’s Super Mario World time. Modder 0TheRain0 did the handiwork here, which you can watch him demonstrate after the break.

Continue reading Dell Streak gets SNES controller dock, navigates owner through Yoshi’s Island (video)

Dell Streak gets SNES controller dock, navigates owner through Yoshi’s Island (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve got a little more detail on those four new pre-orderable phones up in Best Buy Mobile’s business this week now that the news has gone from leak status to official, and needless to say, the truth is even stranger than fiction. The Dell Streak will be available for the first time in retail stores for $299.99 on contract come October 24, joined by a white version of Verizon’s Samsung Fascinate for $149.99 on contract; those two will be followed on November 8 by the HTC Surround for $199. Here’s where it gets interesting, though: the white Sony Ericsson X10 for AT&T — also rumored in our original leak — will come pre-loaded with “The Essential Taylor Swift Experience,” which frankly doesn’t paint a picture of the target demographic we’d really expected. But hey, we like surprises! What does her essential experience entail, exactly? Two albums, a new single, ringtone and video content, and access to her new album when it launches on October 25. This bad boy also comes in on October 24 for $99 on contract. Best Buy claims that all four of these are in-store exclusives… which, particularly with the Surround, is pretty insane. Follow the break for the press release.

Continue reading Dell Streak, HTC Surround, white Samsung Fascinate, and Taylor Swift-ified white SE X10 coming to Best Buy exclusively

Dell Streak, HTC Surround, white Samsung Fascinate, and Taylor Swift-ified white SE X10 coming to Best Buy exclusively originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s 5-inch Streak tablet may not be on a tear but the company is still moving forward with plans to introduce its second Android tablet.

Dell plans to launch a 7-inch tablet “in the next few weeks” and a 10-inch tablet within a year, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Dell’s founder and chief executive Michael Dell briefly showed the device at a Oracle conference last week but didn’t offer any details about the product.

Dell’s move to a larger screen tablet is in keeping with the company’s strategy of slowly but steadily introducing new handheld devices. In February, Neeraj Choubey, general manager of the tablets division at Dell told Wired.com that the Streak aka Dell 5 Mini would be the first in a series of devices.

“We are going to have a family of tablets,” Choubey said. “The first one is a 5-inch screen but we want to scale that up to a variety of screen sizes.”

Since the introduction of the Apple iPad earlier this year, almost every major PC maker has announced that it is working on devices that can rival the iPad.

Just this month, Samsung, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and tablet startup Kno announced new products. Samsung showed a 7-inch tablet called Galaxy Tab that will be available on four major U.S. carriers –AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile in time for holiday season shopping.

Meanwhile, RIM has announced the BlackBerry PlayBook, a 7-inch tablet targeted at business users and consumers. The PlayBook is expected to be available early next year.

Tablet startup Kno is focusing on students with 14-inch single screen and dual-screen tablets that are expected to be available by the end of the year.

Apple has sold more than 3 million iPads so far.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has canceled its planned tablet ‘Courier’ while HP is trying to integrate the Palm webOS into its tablet products.

The 7-inch Dell tablet could make the company a real contender in the tablet space. With its 5-inch display, the Streak is more like a super-sized phone than a real tablet. Dell has also priced the Streak like a phone –offering the device for $300 with a two-year contract on AT&T.

So far, there’s no word on pricing for the 7-inch Dell tablet. But Dell will have plenty of competition to keep it real with its upcoming tablet.

See Also:

• Tablet Wars: How the BlackBerry PlayBook Measures Up
• Build Your Own Tablet for $400
• How the Tablet Will Change the World
• Dell’s Streak Tablet Is Priced Like a Phone
• Attack of the Pads: Tablets Take On Apple

Photo: Dell Streak (Jon Snyder/Wired.com)

What a day — yesterday, that is. Research in Motion finally announced its long-awaited BlackBerry tablet, the 7-inch PlayBook (thankfully not named the BlackPad). While there’s still quite a few missing details, and nary an unit in site for us to try first-hand, we’ve still got a sampling of specs for this little guy to go tête-à-tête on the quantitative field of proverbial battle, at least as it can be seen so far (that early 2011 release date is still a ways off). Looks very promising so far, lined up against Apple’s iPad, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, and the Dell Streak, but our known unknowns — i.e. price, app support, and overall feel of using the QNX-built operating system — are what will really make or break the slate. Until that time, enjoy our number-crunching below:

	BlackBerry PlayBook	Apple iPad	Samsung Galaxy Tab	Dell Streak
Screen size	7 inches	9.7 inches	7 inches	5 inches
Resolution	1024 x 600	1024 x 768	1024 x 600	800 x 480
Pixel density (approx.)	170	133	170	187
Platform	BB Tablet OS	iOS 3.2.2 (4.2 in November)	Android 2.2	Android 1.6 (2.1 / 2.2 in future)
Adobe Flash support	10.1	Not Supported	10.1	Not supported
Processor	1GHz dual-core Cortex A9	1GHz Apple A4 (ARMv7)	1GHz Cortex A8	1GHz Snapdragon
Graphics	Unknown	PowerVR SGX 535	PowerVR SGX 540	Adreno 200
RAM	1GB	256MB	512MB	512MB
Internal Storage	16GB / 32GB (unconfirmed)	16GB / 32GB / 64GB	16GB / 32GB	512MB
Expansion	Unknown	None	microSD	microSD
Connectivity	802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR	802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR	802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0	802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Cellular data	3G and 4G promised for future	3G optional (AT&T)	3G (all carriers)	3G (AT&T)
GPS	None	3G models only	Yes	Yes
Camera	3MP front, 5MP rear	None	1.3MP front, 3MP rear	VGA front, 5MP rear
Weight	0.9 lbs	1.5 – 1.6 lbs	0.84 lbs	0.49 lbs

BlackBerry PlayBook vs. iPad vs. Galaxy Tab vs. Streak: the tale of the tape originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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